GOOD NEWS! EFL “Revealed” That Birmingham City’s Tom Wagner Is Going To Honour With One Of The Greatest Things That Has Been The…

GOOD NEWS! EFL “Revealed” That Birmingham City’s Tom Wagner Is Going To Honour With One Of The Greatest Things That Has Been The…

Birmingham City must brace themselves for a series of lazy snubs

Birmingham City could claim a double at the EFL Awards dinner on April 27 – but don’t expect their dominance in League One to be reflected in the Team of the Year.

Chris Davies has been nominated for the Manager of the Year award and Japanese midfielder Tomoki Iwata is up for the Player of the Year gong.

Davies has presided over a season which could yet see long-standing League One and EFL records broken and Iwata, 28, has played an instrumental part.

However, there is a strong chance that Iwata won’t win Blues’ in-house Player of the Year award. Austrian centre-back Christoph Klarer and winger Keshi Anderson are leading the conversation for that particular award.

The same thing happened when Wolverhampton Wanderers set the existing League One points record in 2013/14. Bakary Sako was the star of that team for outsiders and won the Player of the Year award only for teammate Kevin McDonald to take the acclaim of those who watch the team every week.

Iwata is up against Wycombe’s Richard Kone, who was the league’s top scorer until recently, and Barnsley’s Davis Keillor-Dunn. It isn’t the most imaginative list that could have been drawn up and, in truth, it rarely is.

You only have to look at the nominees for Championship Manager of the Season to see that. Daniel Farke, Scott Parker, Chris Wilder and Régis Le Bris have been nominated and they manage – yes, you guessed it – the top four teams in the league. Where is Liam Manning who has guided Bristol City to fifth at the time of writing, or Frank Lampard after transforming Coventry City’s fortunes in half a season?

On the face of it, Blues should have a lot of players in the Team of the Year. No goalkeeper in League One has more clean sheets than Ryan Allsop – and no one is a better distributor of the ball. Ethan Laird has been exceptional since the turn of the year, Klarer has been colossal, Alex Cochrane has been incredibly consistent.

Some people, myself included, would have you believe Paik Seung-ho has shone brighter than Iwata. Anderson deserves a place in the team and what about Jay Stansfield?

Stansfield has the best minutes per goal ratio of any player currently in the Golden Boot race but being League One’s costliest ever player will no doubt count against him. It would be needlessly spiteful to omit Stansfield when you take into account that his goals have won Blues the title.

Stansfield’s goals have been worth 15 points to Blues, but don’t expect him to get any credit.

When the team is unveiled on April 27, it should be a sea of Royal Blue. Allsop, Klarer, Cochrane, Iwata, Paik, Anderson and Stansfield should all get in. Let’s see how many of them do.